Technics SB-1990 (c. 1979)
The Technics SB-1990 is a floor-standing, 3-way bass reflex speaker system from the late 1970s. It was listed at ¥34,100 per unit around 1979. That makes it a mid-sized floorstander rather than a flagship, though little period marketing or review material has survived. What the record shows is a fairly conventional late-'70s Japanese three-way layout: a 30cm cone woofer for the low end, a 12cm cone midrange, and a horn tweeter. A surviving dealer listing calls the tweeter a radial horn and notes a front-facing bass port and "Made in Japan" construction.
Electrically, the SB-1990 is an easy load for its era. Impedance is 8Ω, rated output sound pressure level is 91dB/W/m, and allowable input is 70W (DIN RMS) or 100W (music). A trade listing suggests pairing it with amplifiers in the 20-100W range. The cabinet measures 420mm wide, 803mm high, and 339mm deep, and weighs 19.5kg. No frequency response, crossover points, or cabinet material details have turned up in the sources examined, so how these sounded remains undocumented.
- Type: 3-way, 3-speaker, bass reflex, floor-standing
- Drivers: 30cm cone woofer, 12cm cone midrange, horn tweeter
- Impedance: 8Ω
- Sensitivity: 91dB/W/m
- Input: 70W DIN RMS / 100W music
- Dimensions: 420 × 803 × 339mm; 19.5kg
- Original price: ¥34,100 (per unit, c. 1979)
One New Zealand dealer listing, now marked sold, described its unit as serviced and in excellent condition. So these do turn up occasionally on the secondhand market, but there is no reliable collector pricing data. If you have a pair, or have come across a brochure or review, the archive would like to hear from you.
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